life and death…a buoy
By Oscar Smiles

does he give it all up mistaken
does his plans change unmistakably
is it last call for a change
is his childhood ganged upon
by his newfound love of last calls

is his third storied
lounge compartment sunny
does he trip up
every drunken step funny

does he lay in the back
compartment windshield
eating sunny paintings
wishing to be drunk and funny

is his four million storied
sun dipswinging splitmouthed
knocked out on bubbly
wishing for blowjobs no money

does he spit out son of a bitch
underneath a picnic bench
does he take cartoon cot naps
is his mouth washed out with soap
does his parents believe him brown boots

has all the data
ran straight to
his fingers yonder aways
evil lurked behind every tree
every rotten fence post
every in between him and me
ponds
ceilings
microwaves

we got cherries
walking those fences
climbing those trees
we tore shit up
firecracked anthills
mailboxes and each other

our parents fought alot
us kids cried alot
incest and grandmother switches
we shot arrows over power lines
woody woodpeckers and oak trees
we shot out every single window
and light of an old dodge pickup
green i remember
a hell of a lashing
we didn’t know any better
we were evil and on crutches

we found marijuana in jewelry boxes
cocaine in bathroom drawers
we had pen drawings poisonedskin
those were the days
the freshest of counsels
we were staying alive
the damndest of parcels

we were miserable
sitting in cold steel chairs
uncomfortable unstable disabled
lacking all reality all memory
we’re all over him and me

we had a dirtbike friendship
we had telephone hangings
we had swat facing
you mad at me
i never meant to be
this way
evil on every level

his clock stopped
the secondhand is stuck
on the second before
secondhand clothes buttons missing
missing the first day of school
terrified
it’s about three kid miles
to the bus stop
has he thought of the consequence
has he reveille smiles
it’s hot as hell and
how often does he get a
summertime nightmare grip on death

he gives it all back
back to back me and him
mouth to mouth
bottle opener
back pocket hyperbole
back pocket of noone inparticular
just in case you figured me
to be a patient mentally

he figured on this
scientific terrific
heroic
rough
stoic

he donates organs
in c-minor while catching
sea serpents and death
he stares out his window
stares death inside out
deep dark blue clouds stormy

he’s feeling miserable
cause it’s coming down
like me outside
he’s disillusioned inside out
we spread our wings ashes
him and me

we wrestle demon gods
spread eagle lay
we both compromise
on the day of troubadours
we stand up and fall down
drunk and funny
we ran from each other
both straight rights unforgiving
rewritable rites
p
l
e
a
s
e

trite but living like a
lost control needed
beating and hurting
peace